War is a subject that comes up in the Old Testament and often causes people to question God’s love for us. The God of the Old Testament appears at first to be very different than God the Father described by Jesus when He walked on this earth.

In the second century, a man named Marcion said that there was an irreconcilable gap between the loving God Jesus taught about in the New Testament and what he termed as the “cruel and violent” God of the Old Testament. He has such a hard time dealing with this that he recommended that the Old Testament be left out of the cannon of scripture. In other words the Bible would only be the New Testament.

We deal with this subject in an effort to have biblically literate Christ followers. There is nothing to be gained by skipping over tough subjects when we come to them in the Bible. If we are going to deal with such a subject then we might as well start with one of the hardest ones. The big controversy is reading passages of scripture like the words found in Deuteronomy 7. Moses is addressing the Israelites before they enter the Promise Land.

1 When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you- 2 and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. [a] Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. 3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD's anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. 5 This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles [b] and burn their idols in the fire. 6 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

7 The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands. 10 But those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction; 16 You must destroy all the peoples the LORD your God gives over to you. Do not look on them with pity and do not serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you. Deuteronomy 7:1-10, 16 NIV

After winning the battle of Jericho we read of the end result in Joshua 6:21.

21 They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys. Joshua 6:21 NIV

So there you have the two things that people who study the Bible often find hard to reconcile:

        1. God says fight to win and make no peace treaties.
        2. God says destroy everyone and everything. (Scorched earth)

The churches approach to this subject has been rather unique to say the least. I grew up singing songs as a kid in church that celebrated some of the most horrific loss of life in recorded history.

We would sing about Noah and the gathering of the animals. The whole world was destroyed except eight people and we were singing about it.

We would sing about Joshua fighting the battle of Jericho. Do you know that there were massive amounts of loss of life when the walls and the entire city fell down? You think September 11 was bad, yet here is utter devastation of an entire city. We would sing about David and his five smooth stones, one of which killed the giant Goliath. (Somehow I had to wait until I was older to read that this young lad David cut off the giants head and held it up for all to see!)

You need to know that God doesn’t delight in bloodshed or even the destruction of people. He longs for people to repent and quit their sinning ways. In Ezekiel 33:11 we read these words:

“11 Say to them, 'As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?”

Let’s look at some questions that I think need to be answered for us to understand what was happening here.

Why is there so much war and bloodshed in the Old Testament?

There is a phrase that is often used and that is the term holy war. While it is used often today it is not a term that appears in the Bible. The bottom line is that there is nothing holy about war. Violence does not happen in the Bible until after the fall. When Cain killed his brother Able it set in motion a constant reminder that violent actions are a product of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden.

There was in early civilization what could be called a culture of war. I want you do a word association with me for a moment. If I say the word spring as in a season of the year what would you say? How many of you associate the word spring with a sport like baseball? How about spring cleaning, gardening or spring break? In the Old Testament days when spring came people associated it with war. In 2 Samuel 11:1, we read, “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army, The destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah.”

Why was God so concerned about evil?

The wars that God ordered His people to participate in were mostly an expression of His judgment against the inexpressible evil of the Canaanite culture. This culture was incredibly twisted and had embraced evil ways as a normal way of life. (See Leviticus 18) They were even sacrificing children on a regular basis. There are and were many things that are not pleasing to God: War, polygamy, divorce and slavery were part of the world into which Israel was born. Because sin permeated the whole human race, many practices became standard operating procedures in the world, but they still broke the heart of God. God was attempting to move Israel one step at a time toward His vision of how humans should live.

God understands the human tendency to fall in love with the world and the things of this world. Certainly he warned us about not loving material things, but there is more to the story than just riches. Those who would follow Christ must identify those things that are destructive to their relationship with God and eliminate them from their lives.

You are either moving closer to God today or you are moving away from God! Which is it in your life? God is concerned about evil because it is destructive to us in every way.

Evil at its worst is recorded in history from all cultures and times. Humans have the capacity to commit horrible atrocities. During the rise of the Nazi’s in Germany there is an eyewitness account of a beautiful little Jewish girl who is stopped by a German soldier. He announces to his fellow soldiers that her dark brown eyes would make good two good rings for him and his wife. What follows are horrible moments as he makes good on his desire for new rings. While this is a horrific story this kind of evil is alive and well in the world today.

God’s demand for a war or bloodshed was most often in response to nations and peoples who had reached the full measure of their sin. They had passed the point of hope and were to be judged for their sins.

Does God still demand pure worship?

The people of Israel were taught, with no exception, that there was one and only one God. This is called monotheism. The Canaanites were polytheistic, meaning they believed in a pantheon of gods. The bottom line is that God’s people are always to only have one God! When there are other gods there will always be consequences.

10 When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. 11 If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you. 12 If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. 13 When the LORD your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it. 14 As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the LORD your God gives you from your enemies. 15 This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.

16 However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. 17 Completely destroy [a] them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you. 18 Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God. Deuteronomy 20:10-18

For Israel to succeed in becoming God’s people the Canaanites had to be removed. Israel devotion to God was very immature and fragile and God is trying to give them every advantage. The Canaanites had no problem giving their daughters over for prostitution. This was considered commendable because they were used in false religious practices. Sexual perversion was a normal part of living for the Canaanites.

Here is what would happen. Nearly every time the Israelites would move to a different culture they would soon become just like the culture around them. God’s law says only have one God yet they would soon begin to blend into the culture around them and take on unholy practices. Does God demand pure worship today? Absolutely!

How do you think we are doing in the culture we live in today? Elton Trueblood, “The test of the vitality of a religion can be seen in its impact on the culture.”

Think of God using war to destroy ungodly cultures as a surgeon in the world of medicine would today not hesitate to amputate a limb if it would save the live of someone. Amputation causes real pain. It is often inconvenient. God demonstrated that He would go to even painful lengths to give those who called Him God the best chance possible to truly follow Him.

Does God play favorites?

In the Old Testament it is very clear that God plays no favorites. Just as He could and did use Israel as an instrument of judgment against other nations, so God could and did use other nations as an instrument of judgment against Israel.

God was not “on Israel’s side.” They existed for one reason and that was to glorify Him with their lives. Their role was to accomplish God’s purposes on the earth. God was not on their side but they were supposed to be on His side. Joshua 5 illustrates this point:

“13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?"

14 "Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come." Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, "What message does my Lord [d] have for his servant?"

15 The commander of the LORD's army replied, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so.”

This is almost a humorous encounter. The angel of God is supposed to definitive but he answers with a no. No, was not one of the options. What he is saying is simply, “Joshua, the question is not, ‘Is God on my side? The question is, ‘Are you on God’s side.”

God doesn’t play favorites but He does clearly call us to abandon sin and walk in His ways. Walk in His way and you will experience the blessings of God. Walk in your own way and the way of sin and you will pay many times over. Your family will pay. Those around you at work will pay. Your neighbors will pay. Your sin is never just yours. You and I don’t live in a vacuum. For us to disobey God’s law yet still walk around like we are representing Him is a travesty and a lie.

You ought to practice asking these questions about your bad habits:

How does this impact my life?
Who might pay for this sin?
What will it cost my children?
How might it impact my spouse?
In what way will this compromise my testimony as a Christ follower?

Honesty to these questions will help us put an end to the sinfulness that drags us down.

Can we learn from the past?

Israel is a very graphic object lesson that we ought to pay attention to. That is one of the reasons we are going back to a series from the Old Testament. It is important that we learn from history so we don’t repeat it and the patterns of past destructive behavior.

Israel had every chance in the world yet refused time after time to sell out and go God’s way.

Is there hope for peace?

The bottom line is that since creation, God has longed for a people that will follow Him wholeheartedly. He started with Adam and Eve and they failed which set in motion centuries of human failure and defeat. God next called the whole nation of Israel to be His people. He called them to be a light and a living witness of what God followers would look like. They too failed miserably. God would often use violence to either teach them a lesson and try to call them back to Himself and His ways or He would try to clean out the people who would influence them away from Him. Always God’s goal has been promote wholeness and holiness.

It has always been about holiness! God’s way is a way of Holiness!

Although the struggle to be completely God’s is one of extreme intensity, God has always had a people who were true to Him. There are those who teach and believe theologically that it is impossible to live without sin. Much of this teaching boils down to semantic differences however I can never get away from the lengths that God went to have a people who would be His people. If God who knows everything believes that we can live completely for Him should we settle for some man’s theological perspective? Why would God spend so much time and energy on trying to give us the advantages we need to live lives according to His standard if it were an impossibility?

In many ways this is the heart and soul of our church and more importantly the heart and soul of the message delivered by God Himself.

He wants you to be His man and His woman. He longs for you to just do the right thing. Take a look at your life and be willing to cut out whatever is keeping you for living for Christ like you know you should be.

The time for lame, lukewarm apathetic Christ following is over. You need to quit playing around and for that matter you need to quit trying to play God. Cut out the sinning. Long for holiness. Long to be like Christ every hour of every day.

Adrian Rogers: Story about eastern Europe Christians and commitment verses surrender.